Community Update Mon 11 May 2015 7pmRichard Morsley, Director of Betteshanger Sustainable Parks, is giving a presentation concerning the Betteshanger Sustainable Parks Development on Monday 11th May 2015 at 7pm at the Betteshanger Social Club, Circular Road, Betteshanger, Deal, Kent CT14 0LT. The evening is an opportunity to obtain updates on the progress being made and discuss ways in which the community would be able to participate.

The Betteshanger Sustainable Parks Scheme aims to create a high quality sustainable park for green technologies, environmental management and alternative energy in East Kent. Development of the Sustainable Energy Visitor Centre and Country Park will commence June 2015 and will be open in spring 2016. The facilities will include: Green Energy Centre, multi-purpose space for conferences, weddings and events, a café for visitors and the local community, improved access to the recreational facilities located on the country park and the Kent Mining Museum (opening 2017).

Developing cycling facilitiesLocal and visiting cyclists will be pleased that Fowlmead Country Park near Deal is about to benefit from a massive upgrade with funding brought in by Hadlow College. Hadlow is a land-based college with courses up to degree level and campuses in West Kent and Canterbury The new "Betteshanger Country Park" will be a major visitor attraction, and unique eco-tourism destination.

A new Visitors Centre will open in 2016 including a Mining Heritage Museum

A new visitor centre will open in 2016 to celebrate Kent’s coal mining heritage alongside new environmental sustainable technologies like biomass, which will generate sufficient energy to power the centre and feed surplus into the grid. The Park aims to become a centre of excellence in health and wellbeing, focussed on sport and outdoor pursuits. It will also house a café / restaurant featuring local and seasonal produce, conference and event facilities and retail.

Fowlmead is already well known to local cyclists in East Kent as a venue for a variety of cycling events centring on its two mile tarmac cycle track, with leisure paths for cycling, BMX and walking in a setting of established woodlands, wetlands and reed beds full of wildlife where once there was a grey colliery shale tip.

Bike hire is part of the attraction, as is a Confidence Course, Orienteering and a host of adventurous outdoor activities for children's parties, schools and groups, including Archery, Cycling, Fossiling, Geo-Caching and Den Building.

The existing cycling facilities will be enlarged and enhanced with potential to host regional and national sporting events.

Over the coming months the Country Park and popular children's play area will remain open to the public throughout the construction process.

The new Business Hub

The development of a Business and Enterprise Park will be in tandem with the Country Park and it is expected that the first building, a business incubation and training hub, will be completed by early 2017.

Spokes is hoping that local visitors will also be encouraged to arrive by bike, rather than car - with improved links to National Cycle Route 1 along the coast and to the nearest railway stations at Deal and Sandwich. We will press Dover District Council to complete an inland cycle path between Sandwich and Deal, which was an aspiration in the District's 2008 Cycling Plan, appropriately using the old miners' cycle way built in the 'thirties for coal-workers to ride to work. This has great potential for "green tourism" now that there's a regular all-day and weekend high-speed train service - and it will also serve local employment areas, including over 1,000 jobs being created at Betteshanger.